Fostering is looking after babies, children or young people who are in need of a safe, stable family environment. Foster carers receive a generous fostering allowance, expert training, and ongoing support from their local National Fostering Group team.
When a child can’t live with their parents or other relatives, fostering provides a safe and nurturing family environment where they can thrive. Foster carers, also known as foster parents, invest great energy into their role and enjoy the satisfaction of knowing they’ve made a difference.
From the moment you apply to become a foster carer, you become part of something much bigger – a team that puts everything in place, so you can be your best in your role and your foster child can thrive.
Foster carers work with their local fostering agency and the local authority to provide care that meets the foster child’s specific needs.
Find your local agency
Fostering placements are varied. Foster carers decide on the types of fostering they’d like to do, with help from their assessing social worker.
Types of foster care
We pay foster carers a generous fostering allowance and offer other perks and benefits to help them provide foster children with stability and security.
Our foster carers have the ongoing support of their agency team and local foster carers like them, as well as access to excellent training courses.
“Foster carers help build incredible futures for young people and children to help them make their way in life.”
“Our foster carers have a lot of love to give. The majority of our foster children have experienced being let down by their care-givers. It’s beautiful to see the trust build between a foster carer and their foster child, and everything that flows from that.”
There are many reasons why children and young people need to be looked after by foster carers, and every single case is different. The myths that ‘families are always at fault’ and that ‘foster children are always difficult’ is untrue. Some people just need more help than others. As varied as the reasons are, there are three broad categories.
Some families go through periods of instability due to difficult circumstances and need time apart to find a solution. Common factors include things like mental or physical health emergencies, medical conditions, family breakdown, learning difficulties, and substance dependencies.
Parents may have failed to meet the basic needs of their child, caused them harm, or exposed them to inappropriate behaviour or risk. Fostering removes them from an abusive environment to a safe place where they can thrive.
Abuse falls into five main groups: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and exposure to domestic violence. These can all have long-lasting effects, so foster children and their carers might need additional support.
The parents of children with special needs occasionally need foster carers to take over so they can take a break. Looking after children full time can be challenging! Respite care lets parents recuperate for a weekend, a couple of weeks, or the duration of the school holidays.
Special needs fostering is a broad description – it includes learning disabilities, specific medical needs, severe disabilities and challenging behaviour. Only carers who have received specific training will be put forward for a particular type of foster care.
“My foster carer is like Andy from Toy Story - Andy never gives up on Woody and my carer never gives up on me.”
We welcome applications from people of all ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds, physical abilities and the LGBT+ community. You can be single, married, a homeowner or a tenant (you’ll need a spare room for the exclusive use of your foster child). Your ability to care for and nurture a child is what really matters.
You’re especially welcome if you’ve worked with children before (for example, as a teacher, doctor, nurse, paramedic or carer). You might find our Can I Foster? tool useful if you’ve got more questions about your suitability or see our blog on professions that make the best foster carers.
“Fostering is a very rewarding role and no two days are the same. The look of joy on your young person's face when they have a new life experience and you turn their life around is priceless!”
Fostering is an important undertaking. As one of the UK’s most experienced agencies, we’ll support you every step of the way – starting with your application to become a foster carer. You can be approved as a foster carer in 8 weeks (fast track application) or 16 weeks (standard fostering application).
All our local fostering services have been rated either ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted, so you can see how committed we are to ensuring a positive and reassuring foster care experience for you and your foster child.
If you feel inspired to find out more, enquire now. As our foster carers say, it’s one of the most rewarding and fulfilling things you can do.
